Haunted Asylum
by Shadow of Malice
Summary: An abandoned mining town turned museum has experienced a number of paranormal anomalies. The odd thing about the client however, is that it's the government that asks for SPR's help. A malevolent spirit is about to make the case ten times harder. NaruMai and others.


Haunted Asylum

A/N: This is a story I worked on during my writers block. But my other work is on the way too. So don't worry! **Also,** **the town and stuff** **is all real** except the asylum apart, I had to put that in to make my story. ;P

2010/02/24/10-japanese-ghost-towns-love-hotel-toyo -bowling-alley-sports-world-russian-village-theme- park/

Summary: An abandoned mining town turned museum has experienced a number of paranormal anomalies. However it's the government that asks for SPR's help. A malevolent spirit is about to make the case ten times harder. NaruMai and others.

Chapter 1: Dreams or Nightmares

The halls continued endlessly as she continued to run. Her breaths came in ragged pants as the screams and wails grew louder in her ears, the sound making them ring painfully. Never was there a time in Mai's life in which she could recall that had her heart pounding so fast before.

Not during the Urado case...

Not when she feared for Naru's life after he killed a god...

Not even when he rejected her after she laid herself bare after confessing her feelings for him...

No. This time was far worse.

Chocolate coloured eyes scanned the dark, debris covered corridor in an attempt to look at each and every room she passed without slowing down. Numbers became little more than blurs as she ran, yet her brain managed to catch the golden outlines of the different numerals. She turned a sharp corner suddenly, slightly shocked she hadn't fallen over in the darkness and continued down into another hallway.

Room after room flew past her as she ignored how her legs burned and her lungs sent painful message after painful message to her brain for oxygen. Despite it all though, she didn't stop. She wouldn't stop... She couldn't stop...

Room 398 caught her eye and she skidded to a halt, shoes squeaking loudly on the cracked tile. Doubling over, her chest heaved with the effort to restore the air supply to her body, the strong desire to just stop and never move again tugging greatly on her consciousness.

Refusing to rest for longer than necessary, Mai stood up and brushed the loose hair out of her face. One foot moved infront of the other slowly, her pace far more subdued and slightly more hesitant than her earlier, rushed pace was.

She wasn't sure why she had run, the adrenaline wiping her mind of any other thought that to follow her instinct. At the moment, Mai wasn't even sure she was completely in control of her body at all as she stopped infront of a door that her subconscious said should not have been there.

Room 401.

The door itself oozed of evil and the brunette shuddered just staring at the metal that blocked her from the room beyond. Whatever was behind it though, she was certain she needed... or would need. Either way, with fear coursing through her veins, she grabbed the doorhandle, knuckles instantly turning white as her muscles tensed. Her breath once again turned to gasps as she turned the handle, her mind a buzz of thought as she pushed the door in...

Her knees buckled, colliding painfully with the cracked ground as a choked gasp left her throat. The air was thick and suffocating, her chests constricted with an effort to fill her lungs with the oxygen it was suddenly deprived of.

It all happened so fast, Mai wasn't sure what was happening to her until tears streamed down her face and her vision turned black.

Had she died?

A strangled scream tore itself from the brunette's lips as she shot up from her bed, sheets clinging to her sweat dampened skin. Her chest heaved as she gulped in large amounts of air. She groaned, sitting up sluggishly before opening them again. The moonlight that streamed through her window made her wince before looking around her room

Ayako and Masako lay in their beds sound asleep, something Mai wished she too could be doing.

"Damn it!" She hissed, throwing the blankets off and getting up, "Why is it always me?"

She bent down to pull her bag out from under the bed and pulled the zipper open. After she gathered her things, she got ready in the bathroom and before long, she was making her way down the long, dark corridor to base.

~ 3 Days Ago~

"We've received a new case that requires everyone's participation." Naru stated, voice cold and indifferent as ever.

"Well that's nothing new. Where we going?" Monk asked, leaning forward in his seat after Mai handed him a cup full of tea.

"We're going to a Haikyo, or ruins of the town of Matsuo. An old mining town that once held a fully operation insane asylum. Towards the end of its years, the mining industry shut down and the townsfolk left. The only ones there were the workers and inhabitants of the asylum, but even they didn't last too long." Naru's voice took on a dark edge, his blue eyes catching the look of fear that shot through Mai's own.

"What do you mean, didn't last?" Yasu asked, looking at Lin's computer screen over the Chinese mans shoulder.

"The asylum was built right next to the mines, and when the mines closed in 1969, it became a place of disrepair and the earth became unstable. Within three years, parts of the hospital had been abandoned to the point that the patients would have to sit and sleep on the floor due to overcrowding. In 1974, an earthquake hit and the earth gave way. The mines collapsed and the asylum followed. It turned out that it had been build over a sink hole. Unfortunately, no one made it out alive... Or so they say."

"Whoa." Monk whispered, eyes wide as he shared a look with Ayako.

"Excuse me Kazuya. But if it collapsed, why do we need to investigate?" John asked, his voice quiet but strong as he gazed up at his boss.

"That's a good question John." Lin answered for his charge, "A few years ago, a team of workers went to Matsuo and started excavating, the government then turned what they had uncovered, the reception building, into a museum for not only the asylum, but for the mines as well. As it is now, they just uncovered a tunnel that led underground. They followed the tunnel and they discovered that some of the building simply slipped into the sink hole and became covered over. The dirt and foliage on top was too thick for crew to remove, so they investigated using old plans of the mines and building."

"Nothing too weird about that. Right Naru?" Masako asked, trying hard to suppress the shiver of fear that ran down her spine for reasons unknown to her. The young man in question just gave her a hard look and shook his head.

"Unfortunately not. You see, during their search, they found a doorway that was supposedly the entrance to the asylums basement which connected over thirty buildings together. While they made their way through, half the group was lost." Even Naru had to resist the urge to shiver at the report in his hands as he read over it. "Since then, museum staff have reported sightings of apparitions, crying, screams, sudden changes in temperature and objects moving."

"Let me guess. That's just the small stuff?" Ayako voiced, her red hair falling over her shoulder as she placed her tea cup down.

"You guessed right Miss Matsuzaki. Mai?" Naru asked, watching as the brunette quickly pulled out a small note pad from her pocket.

"Yeah. One employee said someone, or something, pushed her down the stairs from the second floor after the museum closed. Another report came from a tour guide and her group. They were walking through the bathroom when they heard a weird hissing. When they turned to the showers, a shadow, about the size of a small adult was hunched over in the corner with what the tour guide said looked like blood dripping from its mouth. After that, the stuff just gets weirder." The brunette shivered as she put down her notes, the last sitting of the shadow in the bathroom freaked her out.

"As you can see, there is a lot of activity. We'll be leaving in two days. We'll meet back here then."

~Present~

Mai stopped infront of the door to base which had once served as the asylums cafeteria, beams of light streamed through the broken window in the door and bars over the rooms windows in which let a person look into the hallway or into the lunch room. With a small push, Mai opened the doors to the room, her entrance causing both Lin and Naru to look up and gaze at her quizzically.

Slightly unnerved, and feeling like a child running to her parents after a bad dream, the eighteen-year old strode forward until she got to the table Naru was sitting at and sat across from him. He rose an elegant eyebrow at her as she pulled her waist length hair over her shoulder and toyed with it.

"Mai?" He called, his curiosity at her presence growing when she refused to meet his eyes. In the two years it took for Naru to return to Japan after burying his brother, Eugene, Mai had changed from the awkward pixy-like young girl, into a woman with all the physical aspects of a mature female. Being a male, and a year older than her, Naru couldn't deny the fact that he was attracted to her, so for him, it was a little easier to let his guard down around her.

"Mai?" Lin tried, only resulting in the brunette flinching.

"I'm sorry. I know it's a really kiddy thing for me to do, and I don't want to bother you. I just-" Naru cut her off by reaching across the table and laying his hand on her head.

The gentle gesture caused her head to snap up.

"You can tell me Mai." His gaze was sincere but it didn't help the growing fear that pooled in her gut. She knew that whatever she was going to say would evidently help them solve the cause of the hauntings, but it would also make the case ten times more dangerous than it already was.

"I think I know where the cause of the haunting is coming from…"

~X-x-x~

**And there's a prologue to a story I wrote and wasn't sure I'd post. If you're a fan of my other work, I do have them under editing, but as some of you may know, I've been sick the past few weeks, only coming out of hospital for it three weeks ago. I'm also close to finish my Certificate III in Child care and am participating in Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). So everything has been… crazy to say the least. But I hope you liked this prologue because my writers block is crazy at the moment. But I hope you can bear with me. **

**Thank you all so much for your continued support.**

**Stay tuned!**


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